Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: Beth Is Dead by Katie Bernet

  

Beth Is Dead is Katie Bernet’s debut novel. Published by Simon & Schuster in January 2026, the story is a startling contemporary recasting of Little Women, the classic girls’ book by Louisa May Alcott. I read this book at the beginning of the year and I still do not know what to think of it.

The book supposes the fictional March family is living in Concord, New Hampshire, where their mother Margaret works as an Emergency Room nurse, supporting the family. Meg attends Harvard to become a doctor, and Jo is trying to publish a book. She has a large social media following. The family is suffering the backlash of the father Robert March’s book about his four daughters, giving personal details that mortified them. Beth, the third daughter, according to the book, was killed in a traffic accident.

The book turned into a bestseller but it distressed his family. It also enraged the public on behalf of the daughters, whose privacy had been violated. The public reaction surprised Mr. March, who like his real-life model Bronson Alcott, tended to be clueless. He left the family, believing he would draw attention away from them. In reality, it left Mrs. March to hold the family together, something Bronson Alcott did all too often to his wife Abby.

Beth was especially upset. She was still quite alive and couldn’t understand why her father would kill her even fictionally. She is an accomplished pianist and has been admitted to a prestigious performing arts school called Plumfield, paid for by Aunt March, a successful business executive. Amy also wants to attend but there isn’t enough money for both of them. Typically for Amy, she presses Beth to give up her place and they argue at a New Year’s Eve party, given by Meg’s friend Sallie Gardiner.

Beth is found dead outside not far from her home the next morning on New Year’s Day. Amy and Jo each come under suspicion, as does John Brooke, Beth’s piano instructor and Meg’s off-and-on boyfriend.

The details of Alcott’s books have been tossed into a blender to form a different picture of the family, while retaining critical elements of the original, akin to a kaleidoscope. Like the fictional Margaret March and the real-life Abby Alcott, the mother of the family here deals with day-to-day life while the father lives in his books. Meg’s aspirations to a medical career are new, but Jo’s writing, Amy’s art, and Beth’s music are all established pieces of the original Alcott catalog.

I am not sure how successful the book is as a mystery as opposed to a clever retelling of an iconic story. The investigating officers seemed to jump to conclusions without adequate evidence as they accused first one sister, then another. The actual culprit was obvious in retrospect.

A fascinating piece of writing. Devotees of the Little Women canon may find the book traumatizing however. 

Starred reviews from BookPage, Kirkus, Shelf Awareness, and Publishers Weekly.

 

• Publisher‏: ‎Sarah Barley Books / Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: ‎January 6, 2026
• Language: ‎English
• Print length: ‎400 pages
• ISBN-10: ‎166598869X
• ISBN-13: ‎978-1665988698

 

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4ejG7Rt

 

 

Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2026

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.